A 38-year-old man was shot and killed at a McClymonds High School alumni gathering early Saturday evening at West Oakland’s De Fremery Park, and the victim was just two days away from his 39th birthday.
The beginning of this summer was marred by a graduation night shooting at Oakland’s Skyline High School in late May, and that’s now tragically bookended by a fatal shooting Saturday night at a high school alumni event in West Oakland’s De Fremery Park, according to the Chronicle. The annual alumni picnic was for graduates of McClymonds High School, a legendary Oakland high school that boasts such alumni as MC Hammer and Hall of Fame basketball player Bill Russell. This alumni reunion gathering has generally taken place at De Fremery Park, which is just ten blocks from the McClymonds High campus.
The Chronicle’s report does not name the victim, but KTVU has the information that it was 38-year-old Tony Miller, who was just two days shy of his 39th birthday. Per KTVU, “Miller had a passion for helping others and worked for Urban Alchemy in San Francisco, which provides jobs for formerly incarcerated people.”
Oakland PD Deputy Chief Frederick Shavies said at a Sunday news conference that there may have been multiple shooters, though only one victim was shot. “We’re thankful no one else at this crowded, family-friendly event was injured,” he said at the conference, per the Chronicle.
The shooting was at around 7:30 pm Saturday night. For very understandable reasons, attendees fled the park quickly without cleaning up. The district’s City Councilmember Carroll Fife helped organize a cleanup on Sunday.
This was Oakland’s 75th homicide of the year, which is not as bad as the 90 homicides the city had seen at this time last year. But Oakland’s violent crime rates are certainly still drawing unwelcome attention.
“We will not tolerate this type of violence, especially at a peaceful annual gathering,” Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao said in a statement to the Chronicle.
Anyone with information in this incident is asked to contact the Oakland Police Department Homicide Section at (510) 238-3821.
Image: Daniel Olsen via Wikimedia Commons
